Before feeder watch, I was counting and documenting visiting bird species to our backyard on the kitchen calendar. Then one day while buying bird seed at our local Wild Birds Unlimited, the owners Jim and Lynda, brought up the idea of taking part in this program. I haven't stopped since.
Why do I document our birds? Well, before signing on with the Bird Studies Canada project, I did it just because... to see who comes in, how many of each species and keep track of when seasonal visitors come and go. Like when I still had Red-winged Blackbirds and Grackles in November, I often wondered how much longer were they going to linger? The first couple years I can remember them still being here at this time but it's not been like that in a long while. I can recall one Common Grackle staying with us until mid-January and then he disappeared.
I pay a lot of attention to our backyard, who comes to visit, birds, mammals, butterflies. I guess I should say "we" because Angie really gets into it too. I keep a list of all backyard species who have set foot on our property, and there's a sub-list of what has been seen from the backyard. As the list slowly grows, it's always exciting when another new one shows up. Participating in Project Feeder Watch gives me reason to pay even more attention to the backyard. And lately I tell people this... in a busy world, it gives me reason to sit down, stop for a while and just enjoy the birds at home. The cats do love it too, either watching from the window with me, or just taking advantage of my lap as I am idle for sometimes an hour or more.
Molly helping me look for birds this past weekend.
Merry just takes advantage of the snuggle time with her daddy.
This is just a bit of what came around the first weekend.
I am thrilled there's at least 2 White-throated Sparrows staying with us. They are one of my favourite Sparrows and usually it's a brief visit here in the Spring and the Fall migration, then they move on. It's now been over 3 weeks. Hearing their peeps in the early morning brings a little smile to my face.
We've also got 2 White-breasted Nuthatches coming in daily. This does not happen every PFW season for us, and it's more not than do. They are a fun bird to watch as they go up and down the trees, visiting every feeder available. They are rather vocal too, so even when I don't spot them right away, I do hear them and know to keep watch.
Both these bird species I refer to as my "happy birds". They shed some light on me during these darker days as the weather gets colder. It's great they're here for my first count weekend, and I hope they stay.
The first morning of the count weekend did start off on a sad note as the Pigeon flock was here grazing...
...when suddenly in rockets a Cooper's Hawk. It pinned one of the Pigeons against the fence, giving the bird no chance to fight back, and seconds later the Hawk was carrying it away in it's talons. I'd been in a bit of an emotional slump the last week and was getting out of it but this set me back. I know it's nature. I've adapted a numb feeling to such things, I have to. But this particular morning, I wasn't able to stay numb as a feeling of sadness took over for for the remainder of the morning anway. Most of you reading this know I have a fondness for those Pigeons. I was happy to see my pals Charlie and Dorothy return since that successful attack by the Hawk.
Here's Charlie.
We had 7 Northern Cardinals on Saturday, and then 8 on Sunday! So for my count this weekend, I entered 8 since that was the highest number seen at once. My personal record is 13, being 9 males and 4 females one early evening during a count weekend some years ago. How many can you spot in this photo?
One of the males overlooking the brush pile I made for the birds this fall.
A Cooper's Hawk on the brush pile a few weeks ago. Yes, there's little birds hiding safely inside. Too bad the Pigeons can't get in there, eh?
We had 4 Downy Woodpeckers and 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches.
Two Hairy Woodpeckers also showed up, one male and one female. Normally we say "goodbye" to the Hairys by mid-September for whatever reason, but not this year. The cage around this feeder does pretty good with keeping the Starlings away, but is no match for the Hairys... and we are okay with that.
Three Robins appeared early in the morning and had a feed at the Holly bush. It was too dark out, and too early, for me to go try for a photo. I'm still hoping a Mockingbird or something else appears at some point. A couple Novembers ago we had a late moving Hermit Thrush stop in. Thanks to it being the feeder watch season and a count day, I was parked in my chair by the window to spot him!
House Finches and a pair of Mourning Doves were also nice to see on the first weekend. We don't get a lot of either but this fall, the House Finches are here daily.
House Sparrows and Pigeons make up easily 50% of our total birds.
Sunday we had a really nice surprise with 2 Fox Sparrows showing up. They spent the whole day with us, and again on Monday and Tuesday. Only once before in all the years of backyard bird watching have I spotted a Fox Sparrow come to our property. They are larger Sparrow and fun to watch as they kick the leaves around looking for food.
Fox Sparrows are rather skulky birds. These 2 would sneak in and out of the backyard at random. I'd grab my camera, get my boots on and they would be gone again by the time I was ready to go outside. The photo above was one of the few times I was able to sneak out the front door, then up the side of the house, to photograph one of them near our picnic table. Later in the day on Sunday I admitted my defeat and spent the last hour of daylight just sitting on the deck and watching them. I didn't know if they would come back again or not. I managed one photo just before it was dark out.
Having a dentist appointment and stuff to do made it difficult the next 2 days to try and get photos so I just made mental notes when seeing them.
It's almost the weekend and time for some more counting. What will we see? I may have had some sneak peeks the last couple mornings.
Yesterday there was a bold Red-tailed Hawk who came in. I was outside feeding my flock when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a large incoming bird. It went right after the Pigeons, flushing them all. One Pigeon panicked, hit the kitchen window lightly (having the screen on the outside helps with that) and then flew off. The Hawk chased the rest of the birds. Minutes later in came a Red-tailed Hawk again and was now after the Squirrels. I can't say for certain if it was the same Hawk or it was both of the resident pair making the brazen attacks.
Today a Sharp-shinned Hawk is here making life hell for the birds. No photos as the house next door is getting work done out back right now and all the noise has scattered the birds. I did spot the Hawk earlier on a branch and then dive at the House Sparrows.
Anyway, if you take part in PFW, please take a moment and tell me a bit about how it goes for you. If you don't, maybe I've inspired you to look into it?
For the record, our weekend finished with 18 species and 107 individuals overall. Not bad for a Toronto backyard, eh?
This image came up in my Facebook memories today. You all know so many creatures love our backyard, and on occasion we do get a really unexpected visitor. This is Nix. He used to break into our yard when he was a puppy, sneaking in from his yard that runs behind the shed. Oh what fun that was. We still see Nix but he's much too big and less adventurous being 9+ years old now.
Lastly, if you feed the birds, I hope you have cleaned your feeders for the season, doing this semi-regularly at the very least.
Good post! I've been a FeederWatcher now for nearly 20 years. I almost always get some type of 'late' visitor in the fall, just when the FW season is underway. Right now, it's an immature White Crowned Sparrow hanging out with some Juncos. Half the fun is always wondering what else might come through. :)
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your post! Our feeders are very busy these days. I've taken some of those hanging flower pots, cleaned them out and fill them with black oil sunflower seed. The blue jays and grey jays empty them out in no time. That saves the small hanging bird feeder free for the little birds. Something keeps carrying off the suet feeders though....
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post, as always, Rob. You have such a way with words and animals. We don't participate in Project Feeder Watch per se, but I do daily submissions to ebird which almost always include our backyard visitors. FYI, I counted 6 cardinals in that one photo. I think the most we've seen on our property at one time, and that was a few years ago, was 6. You would love the fact that we have a pair presently that come to our kitchen window and ask for peanuts in the shell. The male is so relaxed that he watches me hold the peanut to the window, crank the window open, talk to him, place the peanut on the ledge, and with my fingers still almost on the peanut, he will then take the peanut shell in his beak and fly off. Used to be that he would fly to a nearby perch and wait for me to close the window again, but not any more. You probably would also find it entertaining to know that the Blue Jays actually come and tap at the window leaving little puffs of condensation on the glass as they wait for us to toss peanuts onto the deck. They are very demanding and have us well trained. We love it!
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